Skyscanner And I On An Exotic Greek Holiday.

All those who know me, know that I have insatiable wanderlust. As soon as the new academic year starts and the school holiday list comes in, the first thing I do is make a note of all the vacation dates, long weekends and mid-term breaks and start planning the holidays. Some people plan their annual budgets, I plan my annual holidays. Hubby, most of the times, is unaware of what’s cooking in my mind till about a month before the intended trip. I’m the family’s undisputed CHO – Chief Holiday Organiser!

As much as I love the planning and “research” that goes into a trip, I hate having numerous tabs open on the comp to various travel sites to compare flight and hotel rates. And flight rates are dynamic so by the time you’re done checking all the sites for the best fares, chances are the fares would have changed. Frustrating, infuriating and a terrible waste of time. When I heard of this website skyscanner.co.in, I immediately decided to take it’s help for planning my next trip over the long weekend in October (no, hubby has NO IDEA).

Greece has been on my travel bucket list since quite sometime. However, motherhood made me push it to the back of the list to focus on more “child-friendly” holiday destinations that have at least one theme park. However, elder son, now 8, studies Greek Myths in school and told me that he’d love to visit Greece and see some of these temples and places that he reads about. So I thought, why not Greece for the October break?

With Skyscanner doing the unenviable task of checking multiple sites for airfares, it was easy to select the flights that fit my criteria (only 1 stop, max 18 hours journey duration). And the best part was that I didn’t have to do the tedious task of entering the destination, dates etc on multiple sites. Trust me, that is NOT a pleasant task. At Rs. 41,908, Egypt Air was the best buy with just a single stop and a flight time of just over 11 hours.

For the hotels too, Skyscanner made the task so much easier showing multiple deals from different sites, all in one place.

Along with the rack rate of the hotel, it also shows you which website is offering you what price for the room as well as the exact deal that you get at that rate. Divani Caravel, which is part of The Leading Hotels Of The World, is a hotel that a friend had stayed at. At Rs. 47,705 for a five night stay, this is a wonderful deal.

Flight + Hotel working out to Rs. 89603 for 5 nights isn’t a bad deal at all. And these are single occupancy rates. If I were to check for a family room for 2 adults and 2 children, the cost per person would be even lower.

Hubby and I also love to hire a car and drive around and explore the small streets and towns of the country we are visiting. Usually, we hire the car from the airport itself but that means checking the rates at Avis and Hertz and a couple of other local car rental firms while the kids get bored (and they’re already bored after the long flight). Skyscanner comes to the kiddos’ rescue by helping the parents choose and book the car at the same time as the flights and hotels.

Enter the pickup and drop venues, the dates, the times, choose the class of car you want along with the features, transmission type and fuel policy (we usually prefer full to full) and you’re done. Easy isn’t it?

So, no matter what your budget, Skyscanner helps you effortlessly plan your dream holiday. I’m all set for my exotic Greek holiday this October (at less than Rs. 1 lakh per person). Now all I have to do is “inform” hubby about these travel plans ;p